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Variations on a Theme is the official photo challenge this week put forth from the team at wordpress…the engine behind the world of bloggers. My domain of agriculture never fails to provide me a response to these challenges.

This time it’s our young heifers. Normally they line up nice and orderly to the table for their morning “breakfast” but here comes my variant. Not content to just come and dine this little cowgirl literally came UP to dine!

I’m not going to be too popular with a number of my friends and relatives with this post….those who happily anticipate the arrival of November 1 and the return to hunting season. Not my favourite season at all. I grew up with a dad and brothers who hunted every year and brought home deer, moose and elk for the freezer. I even enjoy the taste of wild meat on the supper plate. Admittedly, that makes me a classic hypocrite….I confess.

I do regret though, that such beautiful and majestic animals must be brought down in the prime of their lives to satisfy the hunter. These beings have become my photographic passion….I absolutely come alive when a deer, elk, moose, bear, bird or coyote comes to me through my viewfinder.

Subsequently, I joyfully took on the task this week of posting “No Hunting” signs along our property fence lines. I know – I know….this is not going to stop the sport but at least I feel like I am doing my part to perhaps save the life or lives of some of my favorite photographic subjects.

We are just about at spring and yet, in Alberta one can blink and a snowstorm will come out of nowhere on an otherwise warm and sunny day. This little blizzard picked a good week to show up as the current Photo Challenge is to depict something that reflects the season we are experiencing.

I had gone into town for a few errands – I even washed and waxed my truck and THIS happens! Actually the best part of these late winter – early spring snow squalls is the fantastic moisture that comes out of these big fat flakes!Seasons

During the winter months,the last thing I want to prepare is a cold salad even though I do enjoy them as a vibrant and healthy food source. What a treat then, yesterday, to be invited out to lunch and my hostess had prepared such a warm and inviting and yes, vibrant salad! She didn’t even mind me pulling out my phone right away to snag this pic! Somewhat of a rude gesture for a dinner guest, mayhaps??

A simple task like walking through the fields to let our cows in to eat their daily chop provides me such a sense of peace, calm and purpose. To know that these humble animals wait upon us on a daily basis to feed and water them, humbles me and reminds me of the responsibility we hold for these precious animals’ welfare.

Whatever would there be in common between quilting and feeding chop? Lots, when one does chores the way I do chores when I have the whole day to do them by myself, that is.

It’s all about patterns. I got to feed all our pens on my own yesterday as the hubby had a task off the farm. Otherwise he’s here every day and I have to follow his routines and…well…there is just no “pattern” to the way he does things [even though he does get stuff done faster than me!]

So back to the patterns. My task was to feed 5 different pens of varying numbers of animals plus the big herd of cows. The total number of pails of chop that we feed every day totals 110….yup, hand-scooped and hand-delivered.

I like to scoop sets of 4 or sets of 6 or sets of 10 and deliver each set to the trough and then return to scooping the grain into another set. This way I break up the task and I stick to an organized formulation of tasks ever so much like quilting. When I put together a quilt I also work in sets of tasks very much like the pattern I set out in feeding chop.

It’s the only way to get through an extremely mundane and labor intensive repeatable chore and make it almost mathematical and organized and almost interesting?

Forgive me….but I just can’t get enough of my goose family. Yesterday, I had to check on them to ensure that they made it through their first night off the bale-their birthplace.
Of course, they fooled me again and were not to be found….so I started for home only to be be pleasantly surprised to find them in a smaller slough just a little closer now to our house! I’m hoping they will finally rest those goslings and make their permanent home in the big slough in view of our front room window!
On my next visit, this time with camera, they tried to elude me yet again. Found’em in the grass….mom and dad crouching down but the little ones looking around every which way. And yes, still the Lucky SEVENS.